Police take $16k of meth off the street

Silver City police made an arrest and took $16,000 worth of meth off the streets, but the defense attorney for the defendant said there may be a problem with the search warrant.

Police arrested Ruben Torrez on Sept. 21 after a woman allegedly accidentally walked into what she thought was a business to try to sell them insurance and discovered two men with guns and a backpack full of drugs. She quickly left and called police. A short time later, police went to the address at 800 W. Market St. and knocked on the door, but no one answered. According to the affidavit for arrest filed Sept. 30 in Silver City Magistrate Court, police noted they could hear air conditioners running and there were several vehicles parked outside.

Police left to get authorization for a search warrant and therein lies the possible problem, said attorney Daniel Dietzel. He said there could be constitutional issues with the validity of the search warrant, and Brenda Romero, the woman named in court documents as the person who allegedly reported she saw the drugs, said it wasn’t her who made the call.

Police returned to the address about an hour later and executed a search warrant on the residence. It was then they discovered seven guns — three of which had been reported stolen — and a safe with approximately 160 grams — or roughly 6 ounces — of meth valued at approximately $16,000, agent Tim Tavizon said.

Tavizon has worked narcotics for the Silver City Police Department for the past six years. He said the take is one of the larger ones and that Torrez is likely one of the bigger meth dealers in town.

Torrez was charged with a first-degree felony of trafficking within a school zone for being within 1,000 feet of Sixth Street Elementary School, plus seven counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, which are fourth-degree felonies, and a misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia.

The guns recovered included five handguns and two long guns — a Glock .9mm with an extended magazine with 11 rounds and one in the chamber, a Walther .9mm holding 13 rounds with one the chamber, a Beretta .9mm with two rounds in it, a stainless steel Taurus .357 with four rounds, a Smith and Wesson Shield .9mm with one round, a Mossberg 12 gauge, and a Ruger mini14 with a folding stock, plus ammo.

The Smith and Wesson Shield 9mm and Taurus .357 were reported stolen to the Silver City Police Department in June of this year, and the Beretta had been reported stolen to the Santa Clara Police Department in 2014. The two guns were reported stolen from a house, the third from a vehicle.

In 2015, Torrez pleaded guilty to a fourth-degree felony charge of receiving stolen property for an incident that occurred on Nov. 2, 2013. He received a suspended sentence in that case and was put on probation in July 2015. He twice violated his probation — the first time just three months after taking the plea deal — in Octobter 2015, then again the following month. Both times, he was put back on probation and is still on probation for that crime.

In his most recent case, he is out of jail on a $51,000 cash bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 11 in Silver City Magistrate Court.